


The Sullivan Chronicle

by SayianWizard



Category: Smallville, X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Family, Friendship, Gen, Horor, Humor, Multi, Mutant! Chloe Sullivan, Mutant! Gabe Sullivan, Romance, Science Fiction, Supernatural - Freeform, Suspense, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-23
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-05-02 15:24:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5253296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SayianWizard/pseuds/SayianWizard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In Smallville canon, Chloe Sullivan was the lovable but doormat sidekick. In alternate reality she is so much more. After almost falling to her death in Kinetic, she soon awakens a power within herself more powerful than she could've ever imagined. Luckily, she has the help of her father, a dashing billionaire, and a mildly annoying farmboy to help her better adjust to the change.</p>
<p>The universe is a mash-up of DC and Marvel with some other universes thrown in for fun. There will crossovers with just about every major player in those universes. It won't be a long wait to get to include the other universes. Fandoms will be added as they appear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It All Started With A Fall

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Smallville, nor any of the other trademarked and copyrighted properties used in this story. All I own is the plot and original characters.

Before that moment, it seemed like everything moved in slow motion. One moment I was struggling to get a man’s arm from being wrapped around my windpipe, and the next I was suddenly flung through the air. I could feel the glass as it buckled under my weight, could feel as it cut through my blouse and dug deep into my skin.

I barely had time to register the pain before it crossed my mind in an instant that I was on the third floor of the mansion. I managed to grab onto the ledge under the window with both hands, accounting my miraculous reflexes to the fact that my life was in eminent danger. 

Panic and fear gripped my heart as I contemplated that this was how I was going to die. About to land a gem of an interview with the infamous Lex Luthor, only to find myself caught in the middle of a robbery and getting thrown out of a window to my death. 

Yet, for some strange reason as I dangled precariously from a ledge, I held out hope that Clark would save me. Irrational as it was to think he could take down three grown men, who probably had guns, in enough time to rescue me from falling to my death. Even Clark Kent wasn’t that invincible. 

I could feel my fingers slipping as I called for help, Clark, anyone really, to save me. I was waiting for my life to flash before my eyes like people say happens but really all I could think about was how much it was going to hurt if I was unfortunate enough not to die right away, or remain conscious after the fall.

Before I had time to think up any regrets, my death grip ran out and I felt gravity fully take over. Briefly, I mused that I was falling head first, the route which gave me the least chance for survival. Just perfect. It seems like what little luck I had had been used up landing this ill-fated interview.

I don’t recall hitting the ground or feeling the accompanying pain that came with it. All I could remember was my short freefall then complete darkness. A darkness that I fully believed would swallow me whole, erasing me from existence. My last conscious thought was how devastated Dad would be when he learned about my death. 

\--------

The first thing she registered was pain. Sharp, searing and throbbing pain which seemed to radiate all along her body, but especially her head and left arm. She tried to move the parts of her body that hurt the least but found it to be a futile effort. It felt impossible to muster up any energy toward the task, so she eventually gave up after a couple of tries.

Well, she thought, at least I’m alive. Though I really hope I just can’t move my legs because my limbs are sore and not because I’m paralyzed. She really didn’t want to contemplate that possibility any further.

Instead she concentrated on opening her eyes, a task which proved difficult since they felt crusted over. Gross. 

It took more effort than she would have liked to pry them open but was pleased when she managed it. This action was instantly regretted as she was painfully blinded by the sunlight filtering into the room. Chloe quickly closed her eyes. She winced as the pain in them corroborated with that of her head, making her mentally curse up a storm since her mouth and throat felt too dry for the task.

Slowly, she opened her eyes bit by bit letting them adjust to the sunlight until she could see the room more clearly. With the amount of pain she was in, Chloe knew she could be nowhere else but the hospital. Her hypothesis was further confirmed as her eyes landed on fuchsia walls and various machines scattered across the room, not to mention the ones beside her bed, some of whom she was currently attached to. 

She tried to turn her head to get a better look around but moving only made her head swim, temporarily obscuring her vision. Closing her eyes to try and stop the sensation Chloe finally registered the noises coming from outside her room, the sounds of voices, scuffling feet, and gurneys. 

Opening her eyes again when she was sure everything was settled Chloe finally noticed all the flowers surrounding the room. They were all colorful and consisted of different varieties though she couldn’t help but inwardly grin as she spotted the large wreath of flowers she was sure were from Lex Luthor. 

He really doesn’t do anything by half does he?

A cough suddenly bubbled up in her throat that she tried to suppress but couldn’t as it rocked through her whole body making the pain she was already in heighten significantly. She let out a small groan, feeling a metallic taste at the juncture between her mouth and throat. 

Chloe spotted a pitcher of water on a tray beside her and tried to reach for it until her body reminded her of its pitiful condition. She was just wondering how she could summon someone to get it for her when she saw a nurse enter. 

The woman walked in with a smile on her face, opening her mouth no doubt to ask how she was feeling but paused as Chloe let out a hacking cough.

“Ma’am, do you need some water?” she asked with concern. 

Chloe, unable to speak, nodded her head as much as she could hoping the woman saw it. Apparently she did because next thing she knew her head was being supported as a cup of water was brought to her lips with a straw in it. 

“Please drink slowly and only take small sips. Any more than that and you’ll choke,” the woman instructed. 

She diligently followed the nurse’s instructions until she felt she had enough and was able to rasp out a, “Thank you.”

The woman smiled. “You’re welcome. I’ll go get the doctor since your awake now.” She gently set down the cup. After briefly checking her vitals the woman left.

Idly, she wondered where her father was but figured he probably stayed during the night with her then went to work during the day. He was the plant manager after all, and was in charge when Lex wasn’t around and had to make sure things ran smoothly. While he could have taken time off he probably realized as she did that sitting around all day wouldn’t make her wake up any faster. All it would do is drive him crazy with worry.

Plus, her father was where she got her own sense of restlessness from. Sitting around doing nothing but waiting was torture for them. They had to be busy doing something. However, she was sure once they told him she was awake he would be right over. 

Chloe hoped he wasn’t going to give her a lecture because this totally wasn’t a disaster of her own making. She for once really just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Go figure that the one time she wasn’t meddling was when she actually got seriously hurt instead of a little banged up and shaken. 

A couple of doctors, courtesy of Lex, soon came in explaining the injuries she’d suffered and that she’d been out of it for three days. She’d suffered some pretty bad brain trauma, and while she hadn’t fractured her skull her brain had been rattled around quite a bit. Fortunately, they were able to stop the swelling with a quick surgery where they drilled a hole in her skull to release some of the pressure. They were actually surprised she was awake already. 

Her spine luckily hadn’t suffered any damage so she wasn’t paralyzed but her back would be sore for quite some time. Apparently she had landed in soft grass which had helped cushion her fall somewhat. Aside from the brain surgery and a broken arm, the rest of her body was simply extremely sore. 

After running a series of tests they declared that she was healing nicely, but wouldn’t know for sure about her brain until they did a CAT scan. They had already contacted her father letting him know she was awake; he would be here soon. 

With a swirl of their white coats they were soon gone along with the nurse who promised to bring her something to eat after she had administered some pain medicine into her IV drip. 

Sighing Chloe looked around the room trying to find something interesting to do as she felt the pain start to lessen. Thank God for those nifty fast-acting drugs. 

Chloe nearly groaned when she realized there was no TV in her room. Of all the rooms, especially one as nice and spacious as this one, she had to get the one without a television. Then there were no books or magazines around to read. She was on the third floor so she couldn’t even people watch except for seeing what was outside her hospital room in the corridor but that was hardly interesting. 

Luckily, she didn’t have long to contemplate her boredom before the nurse came in and served Chloe her choice of jello. She choose the green one and was assisted in eating since it took some difficulty for her to even lift her arms let alone hold a spoon. 

Once finished she politely asked the nurse if she could bring her some reading material of any kind. The woman agreed and left to see if she could find some books or a magazine or two. 

Minutes later Chloe found herself dozing off into a light sleep.

\-------

When she next woke it was to her father standing over her. 

“Chloe, sweetheart, how are you feeling?” asked Gabe with concern. Gabriel “Gabe” Sullivan was a man in his early forties with brown hair, green eyes and a kind face. 

Though Chloe didn’t get any of his physical looks, aside from his eye color, she was all him in the personality department. At least that’s how it’s always felt to her. He understood her best.

“Like I fell from a three story mansion,” she replied cheekily. 

A small grin broke across Gabe’s face as he chuckled. “Well, considering that your wits intact. I believe I can conclude that your mind’s fine and you’re well on your way to recovery.”

“Of course, we Sullivan’s are survivors after all,” Chloe managed to grin up at her father. Her expression soon sobered as she continued to gaze at him, prompting his own expression to become somber. “I hope I didn’t cause you to worry too much Dad. It certainly wasn’t my intention to find myself in the middle of a robbery and get thrown through a window.”

“I know it wasn’t you intention sweetheart,” said Gabe patting her hand. “Even you couldn’t have predicted how things would turn out. Life has a funny way of working like that.”

“Yes, like you dodging my question about you worrying too much,” quipped Chloe. 

Gabe rolled his eyes affectionately. “Ever the reporter, even while laid up in the hospital.” He sighed, “What am I going to do with you?”

Chloe smiled deciding to let it go for now. “Oh I don’t know, but I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”

Gabe grinned while leaning forward to place a kiss on Chloe’s forehead. “I’m glad you’re okay, kiddo.”

Chloe felt tears prickle her eyes as she looked at him. “Me too Dad, me too.”

\------

Over the next several hours Chloe was entertained first by her father until he had to return to work, then a steady stream of visitors who had come to wish her well. 

While normally she would have been bothered by so many people accosting her endlessly, she welcomed it today since there was little else for her to do as she was confined to her bed. 

Did she mention how much she hated catheters?

The nurse from earlier had returned with plenty of reading material for her but she didn’t get a chance to pick up even one of the books or magazines due to all her visitors. 

Sometime later when things had slowed down she was about to start reading a book called Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card when one of the people she most wanted to see, and was wondering why they hadn’t come yet, stepped inside her doorway bearing her favorite flowers. 

She almost thought it romantic until Clark entered into ‘everything is my fault mode’ which she had to quickly quip him out of. Seriously, she never could understand why he thought he was responsible for every bad thing that happened in Smallville. 

Still the visit was pretty nice. She told him what little she could remember of the asshole who threw her through a window. He promised to do some digging to find out what happened, making her wonder if her being a reporter had finally rubbed off on him. While flattered, it was the kiss placed on her forehead that made her internally do a happy dance.

Maybe he was finally noticing her? 

Or, whispered a knowing voice, he’s simply being a concerned friend and your reading too much into it. He’s firmly into Lana Lang, not you.

She studiously choose to ignore it. 

The two weeks she stayed in the hospital passed by torturously slow. She had blown through all the reading material the nurse had given her by the third day and the number of visitors she had had significantly lowered. The people she saw regularly now were her Dad, Pete, Clark and occasionally Lana. 

Though Lex did make an appearance the second day of the first week in the afternoon. 

Chloe could admit to being a little surprised when he showed up. She didn’t know why. After all he had paid for specialists to come in and see her, not to mention the Kentucky Derby like wreath of flowers. 

She supposed that might have been the minimum of what she expected. As far as she knew, Lex Luthor didn’t make a habit of visiting barely acquaintances in the hospital, unless it had to do with business. 

Still, it was a much welcome visit. He strolled into her room dressed in his standard outfit of an expensive black suit with an equally expensive purple shirt sans tie. He struck a handsome profile as usual.

“Chloe. I’m glad to see you’re awake and well.”

“Well, we Sullivan’s are made of tough stuff. It takes a lot more than that to get rid of us,” she teasingly boasted.

Lex gave an amused smile. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He paused in his steps for a second before moving to occupy the chair by her bedside. A solemn expression came over his face as he looked her in the eye.

“Chloe, I’m truly sorry about what happened. You never should have been in any danger. I promise you that I’ll find and bring to justice the people who did this to you,” he said with steely determined look.

Oddly enough, somehow his visiting her at the hospital surprised her, but not him apologizing for what happened at the mansion personally. Honestly, her head must still be screwed up. However, she believed Lex meant what he said, especially the part about bringing those criminals to justice. He wasn’t the type of person to let people invade his domain and take what they wanted. Those criminals would definitely regret the day they crossed Lex Luthor. 

She gave him as bright a smile as she could muster. “Thank you. I appreciate that. However,” and here her smile turned mischievous, “there are two things you could do for me that I would really appreciate more.”

Lex raised an eyebrow with a small smirk moving to cross his arms. “Oh, and what would those two things be?”

“First, you need to seriously overhaul the security at the mansion. Those guys may have walked through walls, but it’s quite more than a few feet before one even reaches the mansion walls. I’d hate to hear about a dashing billionaire being murdered in his home,” she said half-serious, and half playfully.

Lex nodded. “Duly noted. The other thing?”

Here she gave a teasing smirk. “I distinctly seem to recall that we didn’t get to finish our interview/verbal judo. I would very much like to continue where we left off. That is if you’re not afraid.”

“Oh, I’m not afraid, and I definitely look forward to our rematch, Ms. Sullivan,” Lex responded with the patented Luthor smirk. “Just email me whenever you’re ready to bring your ‘A’ game. I’ll warn you in advance that I always bring my best.”

“So do I Mr. Luthor.”

They shared challenging grins and spent the next hour practicing their ‘verbal judo’ on a wide range of meaningless topics until the nurse came and brought her meds. She never knew Lex Luthor could be so interesting, aside from his money and permanent baldness.

The only other bright spots were when her dad brought her laptop and Pete, through her instructions, hooked her up to the Internet through the phone line, and helped Clark with finding out how those thieves could go through walls. 

Normally research of that caliber would have taken her some time but it was barely two hours before she had worked things out. It was actually kind of weird, though she chalked it up to just becoming a better reporter/researcher. 

She felt relief when Clark told her those thugs had been arrested and immediately felt joy when a few days later she was finally allowed to leave the hospital, albeit in a wheelchair with instructions to stay home abed for a couple more days to allow her bruised back and head to heal before attempting school. Her arm oddly enough had already healed along with her other injuries, just her back and head still needed time.

Chloe didn’t protest the extended bed rest since as long as she got out of the hospital she was good. After all, they couldn’t follow her home and make sure she was actually resting in a bed. No more jello and forced bed rest. Plus she had no qualms about missing school since she could do her homework and the Torch’s work from home on her laptop anyway. 

However, convincing her dad that she would be fine without him all day was another matter but she managed to convince him. She was fifteen years old for God’s sake! She did not need a baby sitter!

Chloe thought that when she finally started school again in a couple of days that everything would be back to normal. Her running the Torch, hanging out with Clark and Pete, bemoaning school, studying about the effects of the meteor rocks and hopelessly fawning after Clark. 

She didn’t realize then how wrong she was.


	2. So You're a Mutant? Now What?

Returning home was at first a relief for Chloe. There was no lingering smell of bleach and antiseptic, no incessant beeping of machines, no com calls, no nurses and doctors constantly checking up on her, and best of all no steady drum of noise. 

There was peace and quiet where she could focus on her own thoughts. 

However, she didn’t account for exactly where that quiet would lead her thoughts. Not even thirty minutes after her father had left the house for work did it really, finally hit her what she’d gone through. The tears and mild hysteria set in like a virus, leaving her unable to fight it alone or regain her composure for quite some time. 

She hadn’t even reached adulthood and she’d almost died. God, almost dead at only fifteen years old. She’d been close to death so many times before, but had never quite been hurt so badly, usually escaping with minor injuries. 

Yet, the thing that was bothering her the most, besides almost leaving her father all alone, was a lack of personal fulfillment What had she accomplished of importance in her short fifteen years of life? 

Sure she’d won a substantial amount of awards and trophies for sports and school related activities, volunteered around the community occasionally and at the very least made her father proud of her, but that was about it. She hadn’t really accomplished anything world changing liked she’d always talked about doing.

There was the Torch, of course but it wasn’t exactly the high school newspaper to end all high school newspapers. Just a couple months ago Kwan had called her on her lack of journalistic integrity and taken the paper away from her. The horrible thing about it was that he had a point. She hadn’t been backing up many of her stories with concrete evidence or fact. Wasn’t that the most important thing for a journalist to do? To prove what they are saying is true without a doubt?

Or at least that’s what she’d worked out in her mind. After all, that was the only way for people to take you seriously. 

Yet, thinking of the Torch only made her wonder about her decision to become a journalist. Chloe knew why she’d picked it as a profession. There was no question about that. She was someone who wanted to know the truth, a truth-seeker. She wasn’t satisfied with something that interested her until she knew the whole truth of the matter. 

It went without saying that it was a trait that had gotten her into a lot of trouble many times. Though there was a darker, more serious reason for her interest in journalism she didn’t particularly care to examine in depth at the moment, if ever. 

Many people thought it was her being nosy, but it wasn’t, not really. The people of Smallville would needless to say be shocked if they knew how much information really she had on everyone in the town. A lot of it was information she kept to herself. She really only shared what she thought people ought to know. 

Maybe it was arrogant of her to assume to know what people needed to know but that was just how she operated. Chloe could explain all these things to the people of Smallville till she was blue in the face and they still wouldn’t believe her. Unfortunately, that included her friends.

They might think they were being subtle but she’d noticed how they hesitated to share things with her or just plain withheld what she felt were pointless things with her. Afraid that there crazy reporter friend would share it with the world. No, nothing was sacred to Chloe Sullivan in her pursuit of journalism. 

Many a time she’d had to swallow the lump in her throat that accompanied the realization that they didn’t trust her as a real friend. Other times it made her so angry she couldn’t think straight. She’d never even given them a reason to think she would share their personal business with the entire Smallville population. They were her friends after all; at least she considered them friends though they sometimes proved not to feel the same. 

It was those times that always made her miss living in Metropolis where the friends she’d made there had actually understood her and knew she was a good friend. 

That still begged the question again: Why did she cling to journalism when it did her no good? Or rather a better question was: Why did she cling to journalism here in Smallville when it did her no good?

The answer she’d come to after finally calming down and drying her tears hadn’t at all comforted her.

It was literally all she had here. 

She didn’t have Pete and Clark’s complete friendship, none of the things she was interested in at school were available at Smallville High, she had no female friends and she was pretty much an outcast because her personality didn’t really fit into any of the school’s cliques. 

While Chloe wouldn’t say she wanted to be popular, she did want to be noticed, to be liked. She wanted to have value to people. Hell, she wanted to make an important difference in the world.

Which all the more left her wondering about her choice to be a reporter. Being a reporter wasn’t the only way to find the truth or make a difference in the world. It wasn’t like her grades were a roadblock, she practically got straight A’s in all her classes. 

While the Torch was the only thing she could call her own in Smallville she shouldn’t have let it hold her back. Having it taken away had opened her eyes to that fact but she had gotten it back so fast the revelation had been pushed to the back of her mind. No doubt not to purposely dwell on how pathetic she had become. 

That a high school newspaper suddenly completely defined her was not a fact she liked. The move to Smallville had not done her as much good like her father thought it would. Instead, the outgoing girl from Metropolis who had been involved all manner of things and was unafraid to put herself out there, had become the girl who seemed outgoing but actually hid her true self and sometimes tried too hard to appear eccentric. 

She was a different person here. While that might have been a good thing in better circumstances, it wasn’t in this case. She despised the person she was becoming. The person Smallville has slowly turned her into.

Chloe Sullivan was better than this. She was smarter than this. 

Therefore it was high time she started changing back into the person she was before coming to Smallville. 

With that thought in mind Chloe hefted herself out of bed and started working on the new and improved Chloe Sullivan. 

\--------

Unfortunately, the new and improved Chloe Sullivan was significantly delayed when she started school again. In more ways than one.

During those few days before she had gone back to school Chloe had staunchly reevaluated her life and the things most important to her.

She would still most definitely run the Torch. No one cared about it as much as she did and she had put too much time and effort into the paper to just give it up. However, she hadn’t yet completely decided on what other things she would be doing instead of completely focusing on it. 

Chloe had some ideas like picking up old interests again like karting, fencing, debate, shooting, or chess. Or possibly practicing martial arts again, or kicking up her research on the meteor rocks a notch, or….something. She was still undecided on exactly what. 

However, her recent indecision on what to do with her life wasn’t her biggest problem right now. No, that problem came in the form of her inquisitive nature and Clark Kent’s secretive one. 

Chloe knew the assigned paper wasn’t meant to be an expose or to find out all of a person’s secrets, but she saw it as a chance to really get to know Clark. Yes, she was sure they were friends but they weren’t close friends by any means. That honor went to Pete, or at least it seemed that way. Though she supposed it was only fair as they’d known each other longer.

It was hard to describe but with her other friends after so many years, or less, of knowing them she felt like she actually knew who they were at their core. She was pretty good judge of character and could usually spot a lie from a mile away. 

She had Clark’s character down pat. He was a great person, but as far as really knowing him Chloe couldn’t claim to. Not to mention his almost compulsive habit of lying never failed to annoy her, even though she couldn’t begin to fathom why he felt the need to.

She had considered that maybe he was a compulsive liar but then she wouldn’t have gotten the good guy vibes from him. Chloe trusted her instincts implicitly. They had never failed her when she followed them. It was the reason she was a good journalist and still remained friends with Clark despite some of his more annoying habits.

With the goal of uncovering who Clark Kent really was in mind, Chloe had begun her assignment. And was immediately thwarted at every turn not only by Clark but also surprisingly by his parents as well. 

Maybe talking to them in the standard interview format had freaked them out. Fine. However, that didn’t account for their skittishness and the way they treated her like she was trying to uncover their deepest darkest secrets. All she’d asked was how the adoption process for Clark went, and what he was like during their first few years together. Hardly nefarious. 

After getting what little she could from them Chloe had only been even more puzzled. Exactly what the hell was going on with the Kent’s? And why did it seem to center around Clark?

Chloe’s increased curiosity however was soon brought to a screeching halt after Clark found out she’d looked into his adoption. 

It pained her but she would admit that she had crossed the line by doing that. She could also admit part of her desire to truly get to know him stemmed from the small crush she’d carried for him since arriving in Smallville.

On the other hand, how was she supposed to know he didn’t know? Not to mention the Kent’s wouldn’t give her a name either, claiming they couldn’t remember the name of the adoption agency. How do you not remember where and from whom you adopted your only son? How do you not remember the names of his parents listed on his birth certificate or if he had any living relatives?

Why was getting information on something as simple as an adoption so difficult? It was all so frustrating. 

Then Clark began avoiding her like the plague for the next few days afterwards which only enhanced her annoyance and anger. Yeah, she’d made a mistake but that didn’t mean he was automatically forgiven for the low blow he’d thrown out about her mother.

It wasn’t long before she finally decided to do something about it. 

\----------

“Can I talk to you for a second?” Chloe watched as Clark ignored her, getting up to walk upstairs. Taking a deep breath and following after him, she decided to try one more time.

“How are you feeling?”

“That depends on if it’s off the record or not,” said Clark snidely.

Chloe felt a flash of annoyance, barely restraining herself from saying what she really wanted to that comment. Instead she decided for the more diplomatic approach, “Okay, maybe I deserve that. Look, I didn’t mean to ambush you with the whole adoption thing.”

Clark continued to walk away with Chloe still following. She wished he would turn around and face her. She didn’t like speaking to anyone’s back.

“Hey, you saw a story and you went right for it. That’s what journalists do.”

Chloe paused at that statement. No, she was not going to let that one go. 

“Is that what you think? Is that all I am to you? Please Clark, tell me what you really think of me?” Chloe felt anger start to boil within her.

Clark finally turned around to face her. Chloe stared him down waiting for his response. 

“Yes, that’s what I think journalist do. Chloe, you’re my friend, my friend who just so happens to be a journalist. Look, there are just some things that should stay private. I know that when you get a hold of a story you chase after it with tenacity, and that’s amazing but sometimes you go too far. 

I’m not some story for you to chase after. I value my privacy and don’t want my personal business out there for all the whole world to see. Can you understand that?” Clark’s jaw was tensely set in a grimace with his eyes boring into Chloe’s trying to make her understand. 

Oh, she understood. Things were just as she feared they were. She had to consciously swallow down the mix of emotions churning within her. She felt frustration and resignation at the truth in some of Clark’s words, along with anger and indignation at the rest of it. 

It took her several moments before she could properly respond to him. “I can understand that.” 

Clark’s stern face started to morph into a happy. “But,” emphasized Chloe, causing Clark’s expression to falter, “you’re assumptions couldn’t be farther from the truth. Yes, I crossed the line at looking into your adoption without your permission. I just assumed you knew those things and also assumed you would want to know your real parents. That was me unfortunately projecting.”

Clark opened his mouth to speak but Chloe held up a hand forestalling him. “No, you’ve had your chance to speak this is my time now. Okay, I’ll admit to being a zealous journalist, it’s who I am at heart. I’m a truth-seeker; someone who wants to know all the facts to the things that interest or are important to me.” She gave Clark a sharp look when he tried to speak again. “You’re in the latter category believe it or not.”

“However, as someone who seeks the truth that doesn’t mean I always share what I learn with everyone. And that’s what’s bothering me about this whole thing between us. I know I don’t but you assume that I do. You assume whatever I learn about you that you don’t want me to or whatever, that I’ll share it with everyone in the Torch.

Don’t deny it! You pretty much admitted as much not a minute ago. Not to mention since I’ve gotten control of the Torch I’ve noticed how you and Pete hold things back from me. The two of you are barely open and honest with me. Avoidance, it’s what the two of you seem to practice a lot around me. 

And you know what? That hurts, that hurts a lot. To know that my friends don’t fully trust me. It hurts even more to know you don’t, I…. never mind. Anyway, the point is, whatever I learn about my friends is something that stays between us. 

You know the whole reason I took this whole thing more seriously than was necessary was because I saw it as a chance to spend more time with you, to really get to know you. “

“What are you talking about?” interjected Clark. “You know me.”

“No Clark, no I really don’t know you. Yes, we hang out, talk about our day, the things we did, or are going to do but not much more than that. You’ve never shared your dreams with me, your future plans, and you have especially not shared your past with me. I know I’m probably not explaining myself well but ultimately it feels like to me that I don’t really know the real you. It always feels like there’s part of you that you’re holding back.”

Chloe’s eyes pleaded with Clark trying to get him to understand her. In some ways she didn’t understand herself the feelings she had where he was involved. All she knew for certain was that their friendship felt hollow even on the best of days.

Clark shook his head turning away from her to look out the window of the loft. Chloe stared at his back waiting for him to say something, anything. Finally after some time he turned back towards her.

“Chloe, I don’t know what it is you think you know but I’m not hiding any secrets. What you see is what you get with me. I’m just Clark Kent, an adopted Kansas farm boy. There’s nothing I’m hiding from you. I’ll admit that you being a reporter makes me reluctant to share things with you. I mean I don’t want my personal business as some Torch article. 

It’s just you never seem to be able to separate between what’s public and what should stay private. Like I said your tenacity often seems to get in the way of what’s right. I’m sorry but that’s just how I feel.”

Chloe could only feel disappointment well up inside her at Clark’s words. Inwardly she sighed. Why couldn’t things go back to the way they were before her accident? It was so much simpler when she didn’t completely examine herself and her relationships.

She shook her head giving Clark a sad smile. “I’m sorry you feel that way too.”

“Chloe?” asked Clark in a confused tone.

“I think maybe we shouldn’t hang out for a bit. I need to work some things out, like our friendship. And…so do you.” With that Chloe turned to leave trying to fight the tears that were welling up in her eyes. 

“Chloe! Wait! I don’t want us to stop being friends!” said Clark a little desperately.

Chloe stopped turned at the top of the stairs. “I don’t want that either. But it’d just be best if we have some time apart to see where we really stand with each other. I’ll see you around Clark.”

Chloe left ignoring the tears rolling down her face and refusing to look back.

\---------

Despite her intentions to mend things with Clark, it just didn’t turn out that way. In some ways the rift between them had only grown. 

In the end she had decided that they needed some space to figure their relationship out. If this had happened a few weeks ago she would have been rushing to make amends with Clark, even taking all the blame. As it was she just didn’t feel like doing that anymore. Plus she had her own personal problems to worry about.

One in particular was starting to freak her out just a bit. 

She would be doing some task or other that usually frustrated her, like homework, or research for a story, or even trying to ferret out the solution to some problem she was having.

She usually figured out what the problem was and solved it quickly if it was in her power to do so. However, lately just before frustration could well and truly sink in she’d get now what you would call a gut feeling. 

Chloe had always been an instinctual creature. It’s what had made her such a great reporter. Her instincts had hardly ever lead her wrong as far as doing digging for dirt on a story was concerned. Now social graces, those were another matter altogether. 

Though now a weird feeling would bubble up in her, almost irresistible. And her being the curious person she was would obediently follow that feeling to its conclusion. 

The first few times she noticed it happening Chloe didn’t think about it too much. Like how she could suddenly process information at a much faster rate than she ever had in her life, or how the rate of procession was only getting shorter. She could read books that would have, should have, taken her hours or days to complete and comprehend. Now they could be read and comprehended in just a few short hours or even minutes. 

Research had started becoming less of a hassle filled thrill and more a task that could be completed with almost extreme ease. The hours upon hours it would usually take her to get information or the number of people she would have to go through to get it had significantly decreased. 

The only thing stopping her these days was information filed at a physical location and wasn’t readily available online. With her computer at her fingertips she just suddenly knew where to get the information from, how to get it, how to cover her tracks and even more importantly, how best to use the information. 

The latter hadn’t been implemented as much as the former, but that was mostly due to Clark Kent’s attitude. 

This was part of the reason why things had become so rocky with Clark. It was like her eyes had been closed for the past two and a half years and now they were wide open. Why did it feel like she had been asleep for a long time?

The Kent’s seemed like a lot of things, but apparently weren’t all they seemed to be on the surface. They were hiding something, and if that wasn’t apparent to her before it certainly was now. What it was she didn’t know but was sure she would eventually find out. 

And honestly she wouldn’t even really have to snoop to do it. After getting her suspicions of them confirmed from their reactions to just her light probing she wondered how it wasn’t until now she realized that the Kent’s were terrible liars. How they could keep a secret at all when they made it so obvious they were hiding something baffled her. She assumed their genuine kindness stopped people from looking too far into things.

Really the thing that annoyed her the most was Clark’s constant denial that he was hiding anything. The way he always dodged her questions about his unexplainable behavior. It was two things that really pissed her off: he wouldn’t admit there was a secret he simply couldn’t tell her about, and he didn’t trust her enough to share it with her or even acknowledge that there was a part of himself he hid. 

However, despite her frustrations the situation with Clark had gotten her to thinking about a lot of things. Namely herself, her own budding secret, and what she planned to do about it.

Chloe knew telling Clark was definitely out of the question. She wouldn’t put herself out there hoping he would reciprocate only to get burned. She’d done that quite enough with him, thank you very much. Telling Pete was also unlikely since he could often times be very much judgmental, not to mention he had a general disdain for meteor freaks.

And that’s when it really hit her. Chloe had barely managed to hold in the mixture of sobs and laughter that bubbled up within her and almost escaped when the realization finally struck. 

She was a mutant. A mutant in a time where they’d recently become public knowledge and were in the process of being hunted down like vermin.

Wonderful. Just wonderful. 

She’d at first thought she was a meteor mutant but just as quickly dismissed the possibility since one, she hadn’t ever had long term exposure with the meteor rocks, and second the mutations seemed to primarily affect people who had either been born or lived in Smallville for a long time. 

Either way it didn’t really matter; she was a freak. She was now the very thing she displayed on the Wall of Weird and wrote about without a care for others feelings in the Torch. 

She couldn’t help but feel ashamed of her actions. It was amazing how your whole, once orderly, life could change so quickly. Chloe Sullivan, the weird girl and editor of the Torch, was now a mutant freak. It probably wouldn’t even be a surprise to anyone.

Why must her life always be so strange?

\----------

It took her a couple of days to come to terms with the fact she was a mutant. 

She would’ve been surprised by her own rapid acceptance if she hadn’t known herself better. Being a truth seeker had contrary to popular belief, made it easier for her to accept her own personal truths. She wasn’t in the habit of lying to herself or shying away from the negative aspects of her personality. You could say she was just as critical of herself as she was of others.

Yet, with acceptance out of the way there came the question of what she would do next? 

Her immediate answer? Test the limits of her ability.

Chloe had first decided see how well she could absorb and process the information she learned by spending an entire day at the library reading as many big and difficult books as she could find. After that she would try and recall what she read and whether she understood the information she’d absorbed. 

To her utter amazement she was able to not only recall what she had read, but she could also understand and explain it without any trouble. Even math, her least favorite subject, was now extremely easy to comprehend. She no longer had to even study to ace her tests!

However, her ability extended beyond just the mental aspects. It felt like the knowledge and ability to perform anything in the world was open to her!

Chloe could literally feel when something was broken, and get what felt like a mental instruction manual on just how to fix it; though she had yet to follow that particular feeling through to its conclusion for fear she was wrong and would mess things up. 

When Chloe saw someone doing something she wished she could, she could feel her body compelling her to try it. Whispering that she would succeed despite never having tried it before. There was a frightening assurance in her mind of success that hadn’t been there before. At least not that strongly.

She’d tested it out once when she saw a group of kids skateboarding. It was something she had always wanted to try but was unsure about. Chloe had watched them skateboard for almost an hour before feeling confident enough to approach them. 

Chloe had simply asked to see if she could try out one of their skateboards since she was interested in the sport and wanted to see if she would enjoy it. She had seen their hidden smirks as one of the boys volunteered his. They were anticipating her swift failure the moment she set her foot on the board. Chloe had been inwardly agreeing with them until she actually attempted to ride the skateboard. 

It was a revelation! With little effort on her part, she was able to quickly find her balance and ride around on the board all on her first try. Sure there had been a brief moment when it seemed like she was going to bite it but somehow she managed to adjust her footing at just the right moment.

She even attempted and succeeded in pulling off a few tricks she’d seen them perform while watching them. All of it done for the first time with little to no effort. She’d never felt so accomplished or powerful.

However, while the physical aspects were great, it was the social aspects of the ability that truly unnerved her. It was like she knew exactly what to do to get the right responses from people. Her lie detector had been good before, but now she could tell with a complete certainty when others were outright lying, withholding the truth or being completely truthful. Chloe had already had a bit of a radar before, but the one she had now was ten times better like it was on steroids.

But that wasn’t even the end of it!

She also now weirdly had the ability to influence people. With right words she could get people to do almost exactly what she wanted them to. It was like there were cue cards in her head telling her the right words to say. In the same vein she also knew somehow knew what the wrong words were to say to say. It was like she had been downloaded with a manual on the human psyche that included individual chapters on dealing with certain personality types.

Oddly enough the ability didn’t really work that well on Clark. It was he was on a totally different brainwave from everyone else or something. 

She hadn’t tried the ability on her father and had no intention to ever. 

Still, Chloe couldn’t help but start to feel uneasy at how easy it was suddenly becoming to manipulate people. She’d made it somewhat of a habit once she’d realized what was happening to studiously ignore the social cues her mind gave her. 

Instead she said whatever spontaneously came to mind. It made a fool of her more often than not but it was better than experiencing the pit of guilt that would form in her stomach if she did otherwise. She really didn’t want to turn into a manipulative person, that wasn’t who she was. 

Plus she felt sick at the thought of becoming like many of the meteor infected she had run into that used their abilities for their own personal gain or to hurt others.

While Chloe had started to explore the boundaries of her ability, she was ultimately left with one question. What the hell was she going to do with it?


	3. Theories, Research, and Deadly Flowers

In order to sort out the changes in her life, Chloe took a week long break from school. It was pretty easy to convince her father to go along with it since he was perpetually busy running the plant and he knew she wasn’t one for skipping school, especially not at the expense of the Torch. However, she got the distinct impression, no matter how impossible it was, that he knew exactly what was going on with her. 

During that week she reevaluated a lot of things in her life, particularly her relationships and plans for the future.

Chloe already knew who she was, what she valued and what lines she was willing to cross. The time she’d spent exploring her ability had cemented that. Yet, the two things she was unsure about were her relationship with everyone but her father, and what the future held in store for her as of now. Because things that had once seemed so certain were now anything but. 

She was a reporter at heart. Chloe knew this without a doubt. But did that mean she should pursue a career as one?

After all, she wasn’t so much a reporter as she was someone who sought out the truth and was willing do just about whatever it took to find it out, and bring her findings to the masses, if possible. But, she didn’t have to be a reporter to do that, though it just seemed like the most logical avenue all things considered. 

Speaking of reporting, she had come to realize her choice of career had somewhere along the way negatively impacted her search for the truth. 

Yes, she informed the masses about all the weird happenings in Smallville including the theory that the meteor shower was responsible for it all. Of course, the meteor shower being the cause was obvious since the majority of all the weirdness occurred soon after it. Not to mention the fact that the green meteor rocks were almost always connected in some way to the events. 

Nonetheless, what she had was just a theory. A theory that she couldn’t readily prove except through a pattern, albeit an obvious one, but a couple of connections didn’t prove anything. 

She could more readily see now why Principal Kwan had almost shut down the Torch, besides for his own personal reasons. 

Putting forth theories were all well and good but eventually you had to present some proof that lent credence to them. 

She had yet to do that which was something she really needed to change. 

In light of her recently acquired abilities, it would be easier for her to study and understand the meteor rocks. Eventually, she’d need to set up a laboratory and get funding for some equipment, but for right now she could do a preliminary study of the meteor rocks. After all, the damn rocks were practically everywhere. 

Honestly, it was baffling that the entire town wasn’t infected. Though for all she knew they just might all be. After all, if the incident with Greg Arkin had shown that if anything the entire ecosystem of Smallville was infected. 

And if the ecosystem was infected then that meant so were the surrounding areas considering how animals and insects migrated, not to mention the runoff from the dam and rivers that flowed throughout Smallville and went to other areas across the state. 

How was it that there weren’t a plethora of weird incidents happening all over the state?

The bigger question though, was how the EPA had missed exactly how dangerous the rocks are to human beings. If they had known, they would have cleared the entire town of them or at least declared Smallville uninhabitable. She’d held up a Geiger counter to those things, they were clearly radioactive.

Chloe had turned the question around over and over in her head, when suddenly it hit her like a brick to the head. How had she been so naïve?

Testing for radiation was one of the first things the EPA did when clearing an area. Which could only mean one thing. They knew. They knew but for some reason they weren’t doing anything about. And there could be only one definite reason for this. 

Smallville was a testing ground. A testing ground that no doubt had to be sanctioned by the government.

The town could blame Lionel Luthor for their troubles all they wanted but he wasn’t more powerful than the government. At least she hoped not. 

Yet, only the government could allow for the things that went on, in and around Smallville, to continue. It made so much sense, especially when you considered the now public, and rising concern over the mutant and metahuman populations in the United States, and around the world. 

There was no way they wouldn’t be on the lookout for such things. A place where every other month some guy or gal went crazy with an ability that couldn’t be explained away as a normal human quirk. 

She’d first thought after moving to Smallville that they simply had a higher than normal mutant or metahuman population. At worst, they had an unchecked supernatural population. But as those green rocks kept showing up all over the place, along with the general unknown variable that any substance from space posed, she’d revised that opinion. Not to mention the fact that the weirdness wasn’t limited to just people. The mutant gene only affected individuals on a molecular level, not the environment. 

There had to be some reason the government wasn’t swarming all over this place, locking it down into some kind of quarantine. While most people didn’t believe mutants and metahuman actually existed, either because of denial or a lack of physical evidence.

She personally doubted the government would go to such lengths to warn people about the dangers they posed, and ask that people report any suspicious activity that might be linked to mutants, just as a scare tactic. Enough things already existed that could be used to inspire fear.

Yet, at the same time, she had no doubt that Lionel Luthor was in on the project, and more than likely had some signed government contracts. Who better to help with testing than an unscrupulous business man that was more than willing to do anything for a profit? It made better sense as to why LuthorCorp had such a huge influence in a town that should have been below Lionel Luthor’s interest. 

Also, add to the fact that there are a lot of pharmaceutical companies who have set up shop in and around Smallville since the meteor shower, and often boasted of using the meteor rocks in their new experimental drugs; her theory seemed more and more plausible. 

Still, how had she and the townspeople missed those connections? 

Well…she knew why the people who grew up in Smallville didn’t. The inhabitants of the town had willful ignorance down pat. They and the people of Metropolis were way more alike than either would ever admit. Chloe had dubbed it as the Metropolis syndrome, and now it was the Smallville syndrome. It was the way people only opened their eyes to acknowledge the problem when it was practically knocking down their door, and sometimes not even then. 

Chloe knew she’d need to do a lot more digging to get solid proof but that wouldn’t really take too much time. Though, while she was confident in her newfound abilities she wouldn’t allow herself to get reckless. 

If what she believed was true, to get proof she would have to hack into government servers, possibly even government facilities. The type of things where mistakes couldn’t be made. Frankly, she didn’t have the power to take on the government singlehandedly, even with her powers. 

The first thing she would need to do is gather her own research on the meteor rocks, then studiously improve her hacking skills to a very fine point, work on her stealth and fighting skills, but most importantly find a suitable partner. One who would not only believed her theory but could also watch her back.

While she unlocked the secrets of the meteor rocks, she’d probably need to scale back on explaining and printing her theories in the Torch. If what she expected was true, there was no telling who was reading her paper and taking the things she wrote seriously. Maybe she was being paranoid and thought too highly of herself, but better safe than sorry.

Speaking of safety, she should probably take down the Wall of Weird. It would help take suspicion off of her for the less than illegal things she’d be getting up to. If people thought she’d lost interest, they’d be less likely to look too closely at anything she was doing.

Plus the wall practically screamed to anyone like her that they were a freak to be put under the spotlight and studied. She could now understand why some people almost seemed to become wary or annoyed when looking at it. They were probably conscious of the fact that they were the very freaks she was looking for and wouldn’t hesitate to place on her wall. 

Yet, their fears were really unwarranted. The only meteor infected individuals she’d displayed on the wall were those who had proven to be dangerous to others and were locked up for their crimes. Everything else on the wall was about numerously bizarre events that occurred in Smallville.

She’d never once outed anyone she suspected of having an ability.

On the other hand, she did have some idea about who some of those people at school are but kept her personal files and observations of them handwritten and coded in a journal. A journal which she kept on her person at all times, except when home, where she would hide in a secure place. Information like that could be harmful if it fell into the wrong hands.

Chloe wouldn’t stop researching people with abilities however. Knowing who did what was great information to have in a crisis. Plus, she’d gone too far to stop now. The whole goal of identifying them was to try and ferret out the most dangerous ones. But, she could make sure the information she had didn’t harm the innocent.

She would need to up the complexity of the code she’d made to make absolutely sure no one but her would know anything about it.

\--------

During the rest of the week Chloe began putting her plans into motion.

The first thing she did was stop by the school and remove any sensitive files she had on the computers in the Torch. She put everything on protected disks and made sure to destroy all traces on the computers, even resorting to wiping the hard drives clean and replacing whatever files were taken off. All the knowledge she had acquired from both self-study and better hackers than herself had taught her how to erase even the ghost back-ups that any master hacker could find.

She had been tempted to start taking down the Wall of Weird but considering she had snuck on campus to retrieve the files, she thought it best to cut her loses and retreat before she was caught. She would take down the wall when she resumed classes. 

The next thing she did was find a solution to her funding issue. After spending days browsing forums known only to hackers and sending out a few untraceable (or nearly) emails, she had found an effective though highly illegal cash cow. She could now make loads of money without doing a thing, except making sure her ass was covered if her actions were discovered.

Essentially she’d made herself an online offshore bank account under an assumed name, untraceable, that every hour on the hour took 1 cent from 100,000 different bank accounts all across the globe. The bank accounts used changed every day. Chloe was basically making $1,000 an hour which accumulated to her making $24,000 every day.

The method was mostly foolproof as only someone OCD or extremely critical of their bank statements would notice losing a measly twenty-four cents. The withdrawal wouldn’t register in their bank statements and even if they noticed, it would be nothing for the bank to reimburse them for it. However, she wouldn’t be labeled as the culprit and it would just be seen as a computer error. 

Accessing the money was as easy as getting a friend of hers to create a credit card that linked to the account, had the necessary account number and security code, and looked like it came straight from the bank itself. Most important of all was that the card was accepted at any store in the United States.

She had already used the account to purchase a new laptop and desktop, managing to somewhat convince her father that one was a gift from uncle Sam and the other she’d won in a school drawing. The others things she’d bought with the money fell into the third step of her planning.

After deciding to study the meteor rocks for herself, Chloe knew she would need certain equipment for the job. 

So, she’d bought a Geiger counter, a pair of lead gloves, several specialized microscopes, and all the standard equipment found in any research lab fit for an Ivy League university. It had taken several days for her fake account to accumulate enough money to make all of her purchases. 

She’d also had to painstakingly hide all the equipment from her father so he wouldn’t become suspicious. Luckily for her she had dibs on the basement as her own private space, usually where she developed photos. Her father rarely went down there.

Setting up the lab to her liking took a day of exhausting labor but the finished product was well worth it. 

Considering lead worked well against earthly radiation, Chloe had figured it would do just the same with radiated meteors. Purchasing the Geiger counter followed the same logic, and it did help to find meteor rocks though it took some time. However, after finding a few she managed to calibrate the counter to the point that it only picked up the radiation frequency emitted by the meteor rocks. 

So far her research was going slowly. Admittedly, she wasn’t too bummed about that fact. There would be no fun in life if everything was too easy. Not to mention it was a relief to know her ability had limits. She was actually excited to see how long it would take her to unravel the secrets of the meteor rocks. 

\---------

Chloe got a major breakthrough on her research near the end of the week. It was all thanks to a deadly flower called the Nicodemus. 

It had all apparently started when Jonathon Kent had decided to take a walk on the wild side. Of course wild for him was drinking during the day, making out in front of Clark with Mrs. Kent and mouthing off to Lex. Not exactly as wild as some of the things she could come up with but out of character behavior for Mr. Kent nonetheless. 

Making the intuitive leap that his strange behavior and subsequent collapse might have had something to do with the car crash his father was involved in earlier in the day, Clark had enlisted her and for some reason Lana’s help to search the scene. 

Though the logical part of her knew Clark was asking for her help because it was a life and death situation, and he appeared to trust in her ability to solve a mystery. Another part of Chloe couldn’t help but be annoyed by him all but demanding her help. 

Their relationship had essentially devolved to give and take, with a lot of taking and little giving on Clark’s part. At least it always seemed lately he only came to see her when he needed something, and always seemed to forget when she needed him to do something. 

It was one of the things they needed to sort out. His assumption that she should drop whatever she was doing to help him with his problems. This wouldn’t be so much of a problem too, if he actually politely asked rather than demanded.

She couldn’t remember the last time he asked, “Chloe could you please research something for me? Or said, “Thanks Chloe,” after she’d given him the information he needed. Though she’d admit that type of behavior had only started recently with him, and it was quickly becoming annoying.

However, with Mr. Kent’s life on the line none of that mattered.

Their search that night at first proved to be pointless until Lana started to exhibit the same wild behavior the next day. Chloe could admit to being a little frustrated that she hadn’t found anything at the scene when obviously something had been there else Lana wouldn’t be infected. She couldn’t and wouldn’t accept the possibility that Lana had suddenly decided to reveal a hidden side of herself of her own volition. 

On the other hand, she was grateful she hadn’t run into whatever it was considering the side effects. That would not have meshed well with her newfound ability. 

She eventually found herself visiting Dr. Hamilton at his lab to try and find out why he was at the scene of the crash the same night as they were. Taking a deep breath she entered the ramshackle of a building. 

Announcing herself, “Dr. Hamilton, hello, I’m Chloe Sullivan, Smallville Torch. We spoke a few times over the Internet about the meteors.”

Hamilton didn’t miss a beat. “Oh, Chloe,” he responded before going back to looking at the papers in front of him while holding a book in his hand. A clear dismissal if there ever was one.

Seeing this Chloe decided to cut straight to the chase. “I was wondering if you could tell me what you were doing out in the woods last night?” She dug into her bag taking out the photo with him in it. She wouldn’t let him get away with denying he wasn’t even there.

Hamilton sighed as he picked up the picture. Seeming to refrain from rolling his eyes he responded, “What I usually do there most nights. Looking for meteor samples. I find them easier to look for at night with a flashlight.”

She could sense he wasn’t being completely truthful despite his relaxed behavior. Also, even if the rocks did have an eerie glow, who the hell looked for rocks in the dark instead of perfectly good sunlight? “So you didn’t see me and my friend?” asked Chloe. 

She let her eyes roam around the lab using her keen observational skills to try and find anything that would be useful. Aside from the tank in the corner with what seemed like turtles and some equipment covered with tarps, she noticed that there were an awful lot of plants around. 

However, the thing she most noticed was that there was a hell of a lot of new equipment around. It looked like someone was funding Dr. Hamilton.

“I heard voices, I saw flashlights; I know kids like to party and as I know you know I don’t like company.” His tone had changed from relaxed to more forceful. 

Interesting.

“So you weren’t there looking over the accident scene?”

He slammed the book he was holding down in frustration. “What accident?”

Chloe had to refrain from rolling her own eyes. Not a smart move to pretend like he didn’t know about the accident. Smallville was in its own words, small. Even someone cooped up like him would have heard about it. 

Flicking her eyes down briefly, she saw the name of the book he had been holding. The Nicodemus Diary. Well, that was certainly worth looking into. 

Deciding she’d gotten all that she could Chloe put on a surprised face, “I must be mistaken. Sorry to have bothered you.” Chloe flashed a false smile and began moving toward the exit.

“And what were you doing in the woods last night?” he practically demanded.

Chloe paused, deciding to use Hamilton’s own explanation. “Partying, with my friends.”

She’d come back later when he was gone and do some snooping. Who knows? He might have already made some decent headway from his study of the meteor rocks. It would certainly make things easier for her with her own studies.

\--------

She spent the next three hours researching everything there was on Dr. Hamilton and the Nicodemus flower. Since Pete had tagged along she’d had to slow down how fast she found things, not wanting to make him suspicious. 

In the end her suspicions that Dr. Hamilton was involved were confirmed. Along with the startling discovery that it was LuthorCorp or more specifically Lex Luthor who was funding Hamilton’s research. Though really she supposed it wasn’t that surprising. After all, he had visited the Torch and shown interest in the Wall of Weird and her meteor theory. It wasn’t a stretch to think he wouldn’t also seek out the scientist she mentioned to him and see what they made of things. 

Despite his ‘social flaw’ Hamilton had been, still was really, a brilliant scientist. 

However, she kept that bit of information to herself when she relayed everything she had found to Pete and Clark. Chloe had no doubt they would jump to conclusions and stick with them instead of thinking things through. They’d assume the worse, go confront and accuse Lex, rather than first listening to whatever he had to say with an open mind before jumping to conclusions.

While Chloe didn’t know Lex all that well, if he was anything like her, he wouldn’t respond well to accusations, especially not without hard proof.

Chloe knew she would have to break into Hamilton’s lab sooner rather than later after reading The Nicodemus Diary and learning what happened to those infected by it. She might be upset with Clark, but she didn’t want anything to happen to Mr. Kent. Plus she adored Mrs. Kent whom she knew was probably out of her mind with worry about her husband.

So a scant four hours after visiting Hamilton she was breaking into his lab with Pete by her side, instructing him on the ways of snooping, and breaking and entering. 

Needless to say, her plan totally backfired on her when Pete accidently got sprayed by the flower. Pete confessing that he was attracted to her was definitely a shock, but couldn’t beat him pointing a gun at her and demanding her car keys. 

Luckily, she managed to warn Clark about Pete more than likely going to murder Lex. Clark somehow managed to stop him in time. And miraculously a cure was found for Mr. Kent and Lana in time by Lex's scientists which in her eyes only strengthened the evidence she had that he and Hamilton were partners. Though she wondered why or how the flower made its way out of the lab when it was so dangerous.

Nonetheless, it was fortuitous as while she waiting for someone to pick her up from Hamilton's lab she spent that time collecting as much information as possible.

The little she had been able to skim through while collecting had been for lack of a better word: enlightening. 

Of course, Chloe found the next day after reading it all and going back to seek out Hamilton that the lab had been moved. It would have been foolish, but helpful to her if he had stayed there where anyone could find him. Still, she’d gotten quite enough from him to work with.

She didn’t have a lot of time to do a more in-depth analysis of the information she’d gotten since before she knew it, it was time for school again.

But, her return to school only brought with it more surprises.


	4. The Truth Will Set You Free, Maybe.

Chapter Four

 

Chloe returned to school feeling more confident, energized and determined than ever. The disorderly mess her life had become just two weeks ago was now behind her. She had examined things at all angles, and found herself satisfied with the results.

Chloe Sullivan was a new woman with a game plan that had already been put into motion in most areas of her life. Now it was time to do the same with the school. The first thing on the list was to start taking down the Wall of Weird. She made sure to arrive at school an hour and a half early in order to get the task done before classes.

Surprisingly, she didn’t feel particularly sad at getting rid of what had essentially been her muse for the last two years. Then again, she wasn’t really giving it up. She was just being more discreet about it.

It took an hour to clear the wall and pack everything away. Chloe couldn’t help thinking how odd it was to only see a bare wall instead of one covered photos and news clippings. However, Chloe didn’t dwell on that thought for long as there was more work to be done.

While a lot had happened during the week she was out, Chloe had made the decision not to write about any of it. Her own involvement in one of the incidents aside, a lot of what happened was much too personal to print in a newspaper. Plus the hospital, and LuthorCorp, had already put out individual statements “explaining” what had happened to those infected by the Nicodemus flower. 

There wasn’t anything she could add to the story that wouldn’t make those involved uncomfortable, or angry at certain information becoming public knowledge.

It was for those same reasons that she wouldn’t write about Lex and his involvement in the incident at Club Zero. Even though Lex wasn’t really her friend, it didn’t change the fact that he was Clark’s. Besides, she was sure he was emotionally drained from the experience, and more than likely just wanted to put the whole thing behind him. Again.

There was no reason to inform the public of Smallville about it, especially when he was trying to prove himself to them. He seemed genuine in his desire to help the town. Printing an article about what had happened last week would only sour his efforts. People in Smallville tended to be quite close minded.

Anyhow, if she was going to trash his reputation, she would use nothing but the facts and words straight from his own mouth. Speaking of which, she hadn’t emailed Lex yet to set a date to continue their interview.

Chloe distantly registered the increasing sound of voices in the hallways indicating classes would be starting soon. Opening her email, she started a new letter and searched for Lex’s address. Entering it into the appropriate box she contemplated how to address the interview.

It had been two weeks, and neither she, nor he, had been in contact with one another. Her fingers tapped against the desk as she tried to find the right words to say. Glancing at the clock she saw class would start in about thirty minutes. Considering she had skipped breakfast, she needed to make this quick so she could grab something to eat from the cafeteria.

Finally coming to a decision she typed: _So, we didn’t get to finish our interview, for obvious reasons. Are you up for another round of verbal judo? Please let me know. –Chloe_

Satisfied, she sent the message. Closing down the computer Chloe grabbed her purse, and locked the Torch’s doors as she took off for a filling but underwhelming breakfast; one that consisted of a large blueberry muffin and milk.

Sufficiently nourished, Chloe returned to the Torch with fifteen minutes to spare. Using the extra time, she tried to figure out what to fill a blank space on the _Torch’s_ front page with. She was full of ideas but none of them seemed to be particularly eye catching.

Letting out a sigh of frustration she checked her email hoping to find some inspiration. Instead she received a pop-up asking her to take a poll. Annoyed, she was just about to click out of it when the proverbial light bulb went off in her head. It was perfect. After all, Kwan had said she needed to get more in touch with what the students at Smallville High were thinking about.

A student wide poll was just the thing. A poll on what, Chloe wasn’t sure, but it was the best idea she’d come up with. Smiling, now that she had a topic, Chloe clicked out of the pop-up and was surprised to see she already had a reply from Lex, and a new email from Justin Gaines.

Reminding herself to read and reply to Justin’s email later, she clicked on Lex’s to see his response.

_Hello to you too, Chloe._

_It is a shame we didn’t get to finish our interview, and my deepest apologies again for how things turned out. Of course, I’m ready for another round. A Luthor is ready for anything._

_How does Friday at 4:00pm a week from now sound?_

_I look forward to testing your skills. –Lex Luthor_

Chloe shook her head with a smile. So, Lex Luthor was ready for anything? She’d see about that. Chloe wrote a response accepting the date and time before shutting down the computer and heading to class.

As she left, she suddenly had an idea for what the poll would be about. What skill did you possess that you were the most confident about?

It wouldn’t get a lot of truthful answers, but the responses would be interesting enough.

* * *

 The success of the poll, along with securing a second interview with Lex, had Chloe on a high most of the day. It was temporarily brought down the couple of times when she awkwardly interacted with Clark. For one brief moment she had to put up with his pining after Lana, but luckily it didn’t last long.

Interestingly, she got to meet a kid named Ryan that the Kent’s were temporarily fostering. Clark had politely asked her to take some pictures of Ryan and see if she could find out anything out about him, or his parents.

Ryan was alright, but Chloe got the distinct impression that he wasn’t being entirely truthful about his amnesia. He’d been quite fidgety at the mention of her looking into his past, almost as if he didn’t want to be found. But, that was a problem for the Kent’s to work out with Ryan. She had quite enough on her own plate as it was.

Though Chloe could swear the kid was psychic or something. Some of the things he just happened to know….

Chloe was surprised and more than a little suspicious at how relieved Clark looked when he saw she’d taken down the Wall of Weird. It was a good thing Clark was shit at hiding his emotions or he would have known better than to let his feelings show. This only served to increase her curiosity and desire to find out what he was hiding.

Unfortunately, she didn’t have Pete to talk to as he was out of town attending his grandmother’s funeral. While things with her relationship with Clark had broken down, she and Pete were still pretty solid. Though that didn’t mean she had ignored the problems even their relationship had either. She had just come to the decision to gradually sort things out.

Still, she was glad for their time apart. While Pete didn’t remember anything, she was painfully aware of his feelings for her. Honestly, it really spoke to what a mess their friendship was that she had a crush on Clark and Pete had one on her with neither having been aware of the other’s feelings. At least it wasn’t even more awkward with Clark having a crush on Pete.

_Please for the love of God don’t let that come true_. Chloe didn’t think she could take it.

Crush aside, one thing Chloe had noticed throughout the day during her classes was that everything was, well…easy. Ridiculously easy, to be exact. Even the subjects she usually had to put more effort into than usual seemed to pose no challenge now.

While that was great, even incredible, the idea that her current schooling was no longer informative or even a challenge kind of frightened and disappointed her.

Would things be like this from now on? Would learning new things now lose its difficulty, thus making the pursuit of knowledge meaningless? After all, if there was no challenge to gaining new knowledge, what was the point?

Chloe gained enjoyment from the pursuit of knowledge more than anything. She gained satisfaction from solving a mystery or acquiring all the facts about something of interest. However, nothing could beat having her feet on the ground searching for the truth, navigating whatever trials were thrown her way.

If that thrill was gone from her life, what would she do?

Chloe desperately hoped it was just a case of the public school system being severely lacking.

Pushing her worry aside, Chloe decided to focus on finishing the article about the poll. Once she was done with that she would stop by the Talon, grab a cappuccino, go home, and prepare to have an _interesting_ conversation with her dad.

She figured it was about time she came clean about what was happening to her. Chloe was more than aware that her dad was on to her weirder than normal behavior. The only reason he hadn’t approached her yet about it, was because he was probably waiting for her to come clean about it.

The only time he’d relinquished his admittedly godlike patience was when she was doing something particularly destructive, not just to herself but to others.

Chloe was definitely not looking forward to the conversation ahead.

Part of her was afraid her father would look at her differently, or worse, outright reject her. It was a silly notion she knew. Gabe Sullivan had more than proven he would stand by his daughter no matter what. She’d hadn’t doubted his love for her since shortly after her mom had left them. And really that had only been because she was afraid he’d leave her too. 

Logically she knew where this fear was coming from, but she still couldn’t manage to banish her fears to the deep dank pit where she usually kept them. 

Not for the first, or last time, she cursed her mother for being so selfish.

* * *

 

Her father was already home when Chloe arrived. The moment she entered the house, she was bombarded by the delicious smell of his cooking.

She could just make out the sound of her father humming over some music. Great, that meant he was in a good mood. That would definitely make explaining things a little easier.

“Dad! I’m home!” Chloe yelled as she closed the door behind her and walked into the living room. Dropping her backpack by the stairs, she moved toward the kitchen.

“Hey sweetheart! How was your day?”

“It was okay. School was as boring as ever, but the _Torch_ is doing great. What about you?”

“Things are running smoothly at the plant. We’ve been turning a profit like never before. It won’t be long before we have trouble keeping up with demand. Lex has really shown himself to be a capable leader. He’s really dedicated to improving things.”

“That’s great Dad,” said Chloe. She was greeted to the sight of her father donning his signature apron that said, ‘Grillmaster _’_ , with the sleeves of his white buttoned shirt rolled up as he stirred what looked like a pot of green beans.

The kitchen looked a bit like a disaster area with flour covering most of the counters and the floor. There was also an assortment of other ingredients scattered around the kitchen being used to make lasagna.

“I see you’re making us quite the feast,” Chloe joked.

Gabe turned from tending a pot of green beans to flash Chloe a brilliant smile. The same smile she’d inherited from him. Like her own, it had the ability to brighten up a room, and make you forget your worries. She felt privileged knowing he usually reserved that smile just for her.

“Yup, I figured it had been too long since I’ve cooked this. I thought it would be a great way to help kick the week off right.”

“Oh, it definitely will. I love your cooking, especially your lasagna.” Chloe blushed as her stomach suddenly growled. Both she and her Dad chuckled. “I guess my stomach concurs.”

Her father playfully rolled his eyes. “You’ll get no arguments here. Why don’t you go upstairs and wash up? Dinner will be ready in about ten more minutes.”

“Okay.” After planting a quick kiss on his cheek, she snatched up her bag, and bounded up the stairs to her room.

After retrieving her laptop, Chloe deposited the bag on the floor near the bed. Placing the laptop on her desk, which was pushed up against the wall in a corner, she booted it up along with her desktop computer. While waiting for them to warm up, she stepped into the bathroom to freshen up.

Returning she found them ready use. Today was the beginning of her plan to start hacking into government databases to find out if they had any connection to the happenings in Smallville.

For the last week she’d painstakingly nurtured and polished her skills, and now felt confident enough to start making serious attempts. The only obstacle to her plans was that the technology she currently owned wasn’t up to the task.

Fortunately, she had already ordered the parts needed to build a super computer with enough power to do what she required. However, since what she was going to be doing was highly illegal, being caught red-handed wasn’t an option. Which, unfortunately meant that she would have to build the darn thing completely from scratch.

She estimated that it would take about three months to get all the parts she needed. Of course, once she had all the parts she would have to assemble them with extreme care. Chloe had a massively complicated task ahead of her.

If only she lived in Massachusetts, Chloe thought wistfully, then she could just break into MIT and steal all the parts she needed. She inwardly chuckled at the absurdity of the idea. You would hope such a prestigious institution wouldn’t have shoddy security.

Glancing at the clock she saw her ten minutes were up. Sighing, she took the time to take out her journal of notes, ideas, and theories, and place it on her desk before going downstairs.

Stepping into the kitchen she found the table was already set, so she moved to help her father place the dishes, but was waved away.

“Relax, have a seat, honey. I’ve got this.”

“You sure? I mean I could grab the….”

Gabe held up a hand cutting her off. “No, I insist. Everything is under control.”

Shrugging, “Alright, if you say so,” Chloe promptly plopped down onto one of the chairs at the table and waited to be served.

Soon they were both seated at the table and chowing down on a heavenly meal of homemade lasagna, green beans, and garlic bread. They ate in relative silence, preferring to fill their stomachs for a bit before engaging in any conversation.

Gabe was the first to break the silence.

“So, anything interesting happen at school?”

Chloe knew her father was subtly fishing for information on her and Clark’s currently defunct friendship. He was the first person she’d told about it. Like the great dad he was, he’d listened calmly as she explained things then carefully added his own input. In the end, he’d inadvertently helped cement her decision to put their friendship on hold. She hadn’t been completely sure about doing so.

“No. I ran into Clark a few times, but we mostly avoided each other. Pete’s out of town so I mostly spent the day by myself.”

Gabe nodded. He opened his mouth to speak but seemed to hesitate for a second before continuing. “Have you considered that maybe you should make some more friends, sweetheart? I know you’re just fine hanging out with the boys but….” 

Chloe sighed. “I know Dad. The thought has crossed my mind lately. It’s just a matter of finding someone I’ll mesh well with.”

“Of course. But I’m confident you’ll find a friend soon enough. You have a great personality Chloe. And I’m not just saying that because I’m your father,” he said with a mirthful grin.

Chloe smiled while rolling her eyes. “Of course not. As my father you are totally unbiased in all things concerning me.”

They couldn’t help but chuckle at that.

“Okay, so maybe I’m a _little_ biased.” Chloe gave her father a disbelieving look. “Okay, okay, a lot biased, but you’re my beautiful, talented, and wonderful daughter. Sue me for being biased about that.”

Chloe couldn’t help the wide grin that stretched across her face or the warmth that filled her chest. This was just one of many reasons why she loved her father; he always made her feel special.

“Thanks Dad.”

“Anytime, sweetheart.”

Chloe’s grin began to fade as she wondered how she could go about gently telling her father what was happening to her. Maybe, if she broached another subject, then lead into it?

“Chloe? Are you alright?” Chloe looked up to see a worried look on her father’s face. “Is everything okay? It looks like there’s something pretty heavy on your mind?”

Chloe opened her mouth but hesitated, unsure of what to say. _Come on, Sullivan. This shouldn’t be so hard. This is Dad we’re talking about. The one person we can always trust, and who loves us unconditionally._

With that in mind, Chloe shook her head clearing it of her doubts. Taking a deep breath she threw caution to the wind and said the first thing that came to mind. “Dad. I was thinking…I was thinking about taking up martial arts again. Not competitively,” she was quick to interject, “at least not right now, but as a hobby you know? Would…would that be alright with you?”

She hadn’t martial arts practiced in years. Not since she’d taken her anger out on a fellow classmate nearly beating the poor kid to death. Chloe barely repressed a shudder as she remembered how blinded by rage she had been, and the blood that had coated her fingers. It was definitely one of the lowest points in her life.

Chloe apprehensively watched as several emotions seemed to flash across her father’s face one after the other. Shock, surprise, curiosity, and oddly enough, though she couldn’t fathom why, a little bit of fear. Eventually his expression settled into a neutral mask.

Seeing this made her panic slightly, so she tried to backtrack. “I mean, it’s not that important. I just wanted to change things up a bit, but if that’s not alright then I’ll find something else. There are plenty of other hobbies I can pick up. Yeah, I’ll just do….”

“Chloe,” her father called, in a calm but commanding tone, effectively cutting off her rambling.

Chloe’s mouth snapped shut as she gave her father her full attention. She watched as he seemed to collect himself with a rather resigned look on his face. Her curiosity was peaked as to what exactly he was upset about.

It couldn’t be that big of a deal now, right? Could it? I mean, she’d gone through therapy and everything. She wouldn’t lose control like she had before. She wouldn’t let herself go that far again. Never again.

Gabe stared down silently at his plate for a moment. When he finally looked up there was serious look on his face. “Sweetheart, I think we need to talk.”

His words only served to put her on edge. “What? What do we need to talk about? Dad?” Chloe couldn’t help the note of desperation that crept into her voice, but her dad was seriously freaking her out right now with the intimidating vibes he was currently giving off.

His face was now a blank mask now, unreadable even to her new senses. She almost thought he hadn’t heard her until, “Let’s clean up here first, then we can discuss things properly in the living room.” He stood up and began clearing the table off.

Disturbed, but curious, about her father’s behavior, Chloe followed his instructions and helped him clean up their meal.

Ten minutes later they were both seated in the living room on the couch. Chloe on one end and her father on the other, turned to face each other.

Chloe fidgeted nervously with the hem of her shirt. “So…what is it we need to talk about?”

Her father remained silent seemingly staring off into space; however, since he was looking in her direction, it appeared as if he was looking right through her.

“Dad?” called Chloe uncertainly.

That seemed to snap Gabe out of his trance as his eyes came to focus on her. Gabe frowned, rubbing his temples as he tried to figure out a way to start. “Chloe. Do you remember when…when your mom left us?” 

Chloe furrowed her brow in confusion. “Um, yeah. Of course. How could I forget?”

Why was he was bringing this up right now? They hadn’t talked about her mother in quite some time. What did she have to do with what he wanted to talk about? Chloe began to feel uneasy as a sudden thought occurred to her. Had her mother contacted him recently? Was she, god forbid, coming to pay them a visit after all these years?

Gabe nodded, missing Chloe’s unease, too caught up in his own thoughts. “It was a hard time for us. I know I don’t have to tell you that, but it’s important. I…you…” he paused for a moment.

Looking down at his hands, “After she left, you and I made a promise. We promised to always be honest with each other, whether that was with how we were feeling or about what was going on in our lives that was bothering us. And,” he looked up into Chloe’s eyes, “I’m ashamed to say I haven’t been completely honest with you like I should’ve been.”

“Dad? It can’t be that bad right?” Chloe asked shifting nervously in her seat. Maybe this wasn’t about what she had thought it would be about. Although—a confession of guilt from her father was more than unexpected. But it couldn’t be that bad—could it? The feeling of unease she’d felt earlier began to form into a pit that weighed heavily in her stomach.

“Do you remember when we took those trips around the world? You know, as part of your therapy?” her father asked suddenly. 

Chloe was momentarily confused by his question. Of course, she remembered those trips. They had practically strengthened her relationship with her father beyond what she thought possible. But why was he asking questions like these out of the blue? What was he trying to get at?

“And you remember how I talked about my childhood, my family, and where I grew up? And…how I met your mother? How we got married?”

“Yeah, Dad, I haven’t forgotten. But, where are you going with this? What does all this have to do with mom?”

Gabe sighed, “Look I know I’m not making any sense right now but just bear with me. Okay? I’m getting to the point.”

Not sure what else to say, she just nodded. Chloe was slightly amused to realize her father was the one rambling this time and not her. Maybe if she just let him talk things out instead of interrupting, it might make things easier for him.

Relief flashed across Gabe’s face, only for it to morph into uncertainty. “Right, well, I might have left out some important details when telling you those stories.” Glancing down at his hands, he clasped them together, squeezing tightly. After taking a deep breath and releasing it, Gabe unwound his fingers. Finally, he looked up back at her, all traces of uncertainty gone. In its place was a look of steely determination.

Chloe had never quite seen that look on his face before. It actually sent shivers down her spine and caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up in warning. Even more unsettling were the warning bells going off in her head, courtesy of her ability.

Gabe continued, “What I didn’t tell you was how special my family really is, myself included. You see, we have a certain quirk in our DNA. Every single person in our family is born with it, though not everyone reaps its benefits. What I’m talking about is something you’re likely very familiar with: the mutant gene. Or, as some of our more arrogant counterparts like to call it, the next step in evolution.”

Well, Chloe supposed it was nice to be proven right about how she’d gotten her powers. On the other hand, she had never for a second contemplated that it was a hereditary trait. She tried to think of a way to express her surprise, but nothing came to mind.

“My family, wasn’t really about concerned things like that. We just wanted to live our lives without worry of people finding out we were different, and sending a lynch mob after us, or worse. For a long we were safe, nestled in a little town my parents had picked out to raise a family.”

He swallowed hard as he recalled numerous childhood memories. “I inherited it from my Dad’s side of the family. Jacob Henderson had the power of thermal manipulation, while his wife, Allison, had regenerative healing. Their children were all blessed with an ability. Charles has the same power as your grandfather, Brenda has telekinesis and telepathy, and Howard has biological manipulation.”

"Wait—did you say Henderson? Sullivan isn’t your real last name?”

“No, but that’s a story for another time. Now about my siblings abilities—“

“And what ability do you have?” Chloe blurted out before she could stop herself. She hadn’t forgot about the last name thing though, she would definitely be bringing it up again. Most likely when her father was least expecting it.

A grimace crossed Gabe’s face. He really wished this conversation never had come up, but that was life for you. Being forced to do things you didn’t want to, or having to force others. “Persuasion, both tactile and verbal,” he said calmly.

Huh. Of all the abilities she could imagine her father having, persuasion wasn’t one of them. Honestly she had thought they would have the same ability. Speaking of… “You have the same ability as Kyle Tippet,” she thought aloud.

“Yes, though he has to touch his target in order for it to work. I simply have to tell them what I want them to do.” Seeing Chloe’s raised brow, he elaborated, “I crossed paths with him and Bob Rickman almost a decade ago. It was an interesting experience to come across two people who had the same ability as I did.”

Gabe reminisced with a grin, only for it to droop into a frown. “It’s a shame what happened to Kyle, though. Choosing to hide away from the world because of his ability. But then again, better that than becoming the monster Bob turned into. A monster it’s so easy to become,” he finished with a whisper.

His last words raised an important, but uncomfortable question. “Do…Do you use your ability often? Or…?” she trailed off in askance.

Gabe shook his head, “I haven’t used it in years.” His hands balled into fists as a look of shame colored his features. “I did so much wrong with it that I can’t make up for. I promised myself I would never use my ability to hurt anyone again, unless absolutely necessary. So far, I’ve been able to keep that promise.”

A frown marred Chloe’s face as she tried to decipher what he meant. “What do you mean? Who did you hurt? Was it really that bad?”

“No,” said Gabe, shaking his head. “Now isn’t the time for that. Another time, maybe. It’s not what I wanted to tell you anyway.”

“But—“

“Anyway,” cut in Gabe loudly, “There was also my little brother, Richard. His ability was called intuitive aptitude. It was a very unique ability, special only to those in our family. He was a lot like you, you know. Looking at you, I can almost picture what he would have been like had he made it past childhood.” Gabe momentarily choked up, unable to continue.

Chloe could only feel sadness as she thought of the uncle she’d never get to know and how much his death still clearly affected her father even though it had been decades.

He’d told her some summers ago about Richard, his youngest brother.

She watched stricken as her father painfully recalled, how Richard, convinced he was infallible due to his ability, foolishly jumped into the Mississippi River on a dare thinking he could easily out swim the currents. Barely a minute in and he’d sank like a brick into its depths. At least, that was how his brother’s friends who’d witnessed the event said happened.

Gabe hadn’t particularly cared, all he knew was that his baby brother was dead and it was his fault. He was supposed to have been watching him, but had ditched him with his friends to go do his own thing. It was a mistake he’d had to live with for the rest of his life.

Deciding to change the subject, Chloe asked, “So, you never explained why our family, or others for that matter, get the mutant gene. Do you know why?”

“The Sullivan’s come from a long line of mutants. Our bloodline is believed to run as far back as ancient Egypt, though some believe it goes back even farther. If you’re interested, I have this huge tome upstairs that was written by one of our relatives a couple decades ago. He painstakingly traced our bloodline all the way back to ancient times. He made it his life goal to map out our origins.”

Chloe just stared at her father in disbelief. “You’re joking?”

“I’m afraid not. Like I said, the x-gene is prevalent in our family. You inherited your powers from me. Well, not my particular ability, but having my DNA made its manifestation possible.”

A bewildered look crossed Chloe’s face. “How do you know I have any powers?” she asked, trying not to panic.

Gabe gave his daughter a patronizing look. “Chloe, please. I know you better than you know yourself. Do you really think I haven’t noticed the recent changes in your behavior? Have I ever been unconcerned with what happens to you?”

A blush spread across Chloe’s face as she realized the absurdity of her words. Of course, he would notice she had been acting differently. He was the man whom she both idolized and emulated. The one who paid the most attention to what was going on in her life.

“Okay, so that was a kind of a stupid question. However, you still didn’t answer all of my questions. How do you know its powers and not something else?” She asked suspiciously.

“Because you’ve had your ability since you were toddler. And, it’s the same ability that Richard had. It’s an extremely rare ability that only shows up within a few individuals in the family at a time. You happen to be one of those few.” he said with an exhausted sigh.

Chloe felt her mouth go dry and her heart start beating a hundred miles a minute. Sweat began gather at her brow as she felt anticipation within at finally finding out what this ability she possessed was. "Intuitive aptitude? What is that anyway?” 

Her father expression had turned grim once more. There was almost a hesitance in him to speak again before he seemed to gather his resolve with pursed lips.

“Intuitive Aptitude: The power to instantly learn and understand the complexity and exactness of organisms, objects, and more without the need for long-term or special education. Simply put, you have the power to do, pretty much anything.”

Chloe was silent as she absorbed his words and processed them over and over in her mind. An ability like that…it sounded impossible. Something like that would upset nature’s usual balance. Though he did mention it only appeared in their family amongst a few of their members so that might be the balance that was in place.

Still. The way her father spoke it sounded like nothing was impossible for her. That she could…do anything. But would she? She’d need to think some more on this later. For now, she would hear whatever her father had left to say.

“Chloe?” Gabe called worriedly. She had been silent for quite a while and it was making him nervous. He knew he was throwing a lot at her at once, but this needed to be done. He had put it off for too long already.

She held up a hand forestalling whatever he was going to say next. “Just, just give me a bit to process this okay?” Gabe stared at her confounded for a moment before simply nodding. “Right. Now that we’ve sorted that out. You still haven’t explained how you knew what my ability was going to be. It sounded like you already knew. Also, does everyone in the family really get an ability?”

“No, not everyone gets an ability. Which just so happens to be a source of bitterness in our family. There are many who have cut off all contact because they feel like they were cheated. Though, there are just as many who have abilities and don’t associated with those in the family who don’t.

The mutant gene usually doesn’t activate until puberty. This is usually why those accidents you see on TV caused by mutants are teenagers. The body’s already undergoing changes, thus making the process of transformation easier. Though….there are exceptions. "

“I’m going to go out on a limb and assume I’m an exception. That you knew I would possibly be going through this process,” Chloe theorized. “Did you guess I would have the ability of someone in my immediate family? Is that how it works?”

“Sometimes. But, you’re an exception because your ability, intuitive aptitude, develops at a very young age. You started showing signs of having the ability when you were at least six months old.”

And there went any semblance of her trying to keep her cool. “Why didn’t you tell me about this before now?” she exploded with rage. “If I’ve actually had this ability almost all my life, then why am I only noticing it now?”

To think she’d been worried about asking her father about taking up martial arts again. How silly her previous nervousness seemed now?

“Sweetheart? I need you to calm down,” said Gabe in a placating tone. He spoke calmly and softly as if trying not to spook her as one would a frightened animal.

“Calm down? Calm down! You want me to calm down after you’ve just dropped this bombshell on me?! Are you kidding me?”

“Chloe,” Gabe uttered sternly. “Getting so worked up won’t help anything. Listen to me! Please! You’re my little girl and I love you. Please give me the chance to explain things.”

Chloe was about to retort her opinion about whether getting worked up or not would help, but found some of the fight leaving her at her father’s words. Looking at him she could see the weariness etched into his features and the plea in his eyes that she hear him out. She could see his love for her remained like always.

Taking a deep breath to release the tension that had built up within her body, she looked away from her father before turning back to him more composed than she had been previously.

“Alright. I’ll hear you out.”

Gabe breathed deeply before exhaling long and loud. He ran a hand through his hair. Dropping it back down to his side, he looked at Chloe with a morose expression.

“Before I tell you why I didn’t inform you of your ability until now, there are some things you need to know first.”

A ball of fear formed in the pit of her stomach as she waited to hear her father’s words. She hoped what he was about to explain wouldn’t be as terrifying as she feared it would.

"One last thing before we continue,” said her father, giving her a stern look. “I know what’s been going on Chloe.”

Chloe opened her mouth to object but was cut off by a patronizing look from her father. 

“Do you really think I haven’t been paying attention? You’re my daughter, my only child. It’s my mission in life to love, protect and look after your best interests, which includes noticing when you start exhibiting odd behavior. And you’ve been acting very oddly of late.” 

“Okay, I have been acting odd. I’ll give you that, but what more do you know than that?” She wouldn’t insult her father by pretending she didn’t know what he was talking about. Her plan had been to tell him the truth tonight, after all. Yet, he was talking like he knew everything. It was making her more than a little suspicious. Was he keeping tabs on her? 

“Yes, I have been keeping tabs on you. Do you really think with all the trouble you get into that I wouldn’t?” he asked at her look of surprise.

Chloe could only smile sheepishly and shrug. Honestly the thought had never crossed her mind.

 Gabe simply shook his head. “Well, now you know. You may have thought you were being stealthy but you’re not the only person that lives in this house. I’ve seen the very expensive purchases you’ve recently made, and believe me, we’ll be having a talk about where you got the money from.”

She couldn’t help but flinch at the consternation in her father’s tone. Chloe knew what she’d done was wrong, just…it was for a worthy cause! It wasn’t like she was just using the money to buy frivolous things. It was for research purposes!

Once again, before she could even argue her case, he cut her off. “It isn’t up for debate. It doesn’t matter how you were using the money if you stole it from honest, hardworking people. 

Chloe simply sighed, “Right. Sorry.”

“What am I going to do with you?” Gabe muttered in exasperation though he gave her a small smile, showing he wasn’t truly mad with her.

* * *

 Chloe stared up at the ceiling unable to sleep.

It had been almost four hours ago since her father had spilled secrets he’d been keeping from her for years. Some of them secrets she’d rather never have known.

Yet, it was too late now. Pandora’s Box had been opened and there was no going back.

Like a floodgate, once her father had started talking he couldn’t stop. From the number of times he’d let something slip and stopped mid-sentence only to continue with what he was saying with resignation, she could tell he was relieved to get rid of the load that had been weighing him down. 

Yet, while the experience was cathartic for him, it was anything but for her. 

She constantly replayed bits and pieces of the conversation in her head over and over again. Out of all the bombshells he’d dropped on her it was only two of them that really stood out in her mind.

Finally learning the reason why her mother had abandoned them, was the thing that plagued her mind the most. 

All those years she'd thought it was her fault. All the therapy she’d went through to disabuse her of that notion. How her father would always tell her that the fault lay with him and her mother as to why she’d walked out on them.

Yet, it really had been her fault. Not intentionally, and certainly she wasn’t a deciding factor in what followed, but it still stung nonetheless. 

Her father had admitted that her mother hadn’t wanted to be a wife or mother. Something she’d been vocal about with him though never where Chloe could hear. They’d dated happily for over a year with vague plans for the future, then her mother had gotten her pregnant.

Her father, who had been raised to value family, had wanted to make an honest woman out of her. Her mother while unable to stomach the idea of an abortion, had been perfectly fine with having the baby, putting it up for adoption, and moving on with her life.

Gabe, however, had been dead set against the idea and thought they owed it to her to try being a family. He eventually convinced her, through sound argument, to marry him. Chloe could see it was important to her father that she realize that he hadn’t used his ability whenever he pleased. She’d be lying if she said the thought hadn’t crossed her mind, and that it was a relief he hadn’t coerced her mother in to marrying him. It helped that her ability pegged his words as being truthful.

So, they got married, moved to Metropolis, Kansas, and five months later she was born.

For a while things were good. Her parents adapted to married life and the role of doting parents. Then she’d turned two. As far as her father was concerned it has been apparent since she was a year old that she was special. She had reached all the early development milestones far faster than was normal for any infant. Talking at six months, walking at eight months, and reading at twelve months.

While her mother regarded her as a prodigy in the making, her father knew better. He wasn’t completely sure at that time that her ability was Intuitive Aptitude but did suspect a similar ability such as enhanced intelligence. Either way, her displaying an ability at such a young age was dangerous.

He already knew how difficult it was for his parents to keep himself and his siblings’ safe, to keep them from exposing their less than normal qualities to others, and teaching them how to blend in, so to speak.

Despite how intelligent Chloe was showing herself to be it wouldn’t make it any easier to keep her from drawing attention to herself. So, her father did what he could to minimize the risk. 

He hired tutors and had her home schooled in numerous subjects in order to satisfy her curiosity and intelligence. By the time she was old enough for school she was already on an 8th grade level. After a few heated arguments with Moira he’d allowed her to attend one of Metropolis’ exclusive prep schools, guaranteeing a certain level of discretion. 

However, after a year when it was apparent she would soon run out of things for them to teach her, especially since he wouldn’t allow them to advance her several grades, her father resorted to…a more questionable solution. A solution Moira would never have any idea about.

This lead to the second thing that stood out in her mind.

Gabe got in contact with an old friend of the family. A telepathic old friend. Sometime after her sixth birthday Charles Xavier paid her father a visit, and during said visit placed several mental blocks on her ability. All of them were specific, they were to dampen the metal capacity of her ability but not the physical. Nothing could be done about that without making her physically handicapped. Nor could her ability be completely blocked without severe consequences, so limiting her obvious intelligence was seen as the most “optimal” answer.

Needless to say, she didn’t agree one bit.

Her father had argued that the government and others in power had an uncanny interest in extremely intelligent children, and did whatever it took to “collect them.” He had only done what he thought would keep her safe and off anyone’s radar.

Part of her could see the logic in his words and actions. However, a larger part of her felt violated and betrayed that her mind had been tampered with, without her knowledge. No wonder it had felt like she’d been going through life with a veil over her eyes. He’d explained that the brain trauma from her accident had more than likely shattered the blocks allowing her to access her ability fully.

Anyway, even though he had significantly slowed her ability to learn, she was still far ahead of her age group. In order to rectify this she was signed up for all kinds of activities to occupy her time. Unsurprisingly, she excelled at everything she tried, even winning awards and trophies to document her success.

Life became simple once again, running smoothly with few problems. But like all things, the other shoe inevitably dropped. Apparently since her metal capacity for her ability had essentially been plugged, this lead to a substantial amount of growth going towards the physical aspect. Such as the power to gain others abilities.

The significance of that? One day when she was alone with her mother she had begged her to allow her to have a couple more cookies for lunch. Her mother denied her request of course, which lead to what happened next. Angry she had demanded that her mother give her the cookies.

And she did, in an almost mindless daze that only lifted after she had done what Chloe wanted. While her mother had snapped out of it traumatized at what happened, Chloe had been woefully oblivious, not even noticing that her mother had kept her distance until her father arrived home and she told him what happened.

Gabe, exhausted at having to keep up the charade, decided to finally come clean with truth rather than take the easy way out. It was a decision he admitted that he sometimes regretted making. But, what was done was done.

Her mother hadn’t taken things well, unsurprisingly. She didn’t leave right away but the way she began to withdraw from them was the first clue. After two months of withdrawn silence and fearful looks, her mother left them early on a Tuesday morning. Chloe had woken up well past the time she was supposed to be up for school to find her father sitting at the dining room table as if he were stuck in daze with tears running down his cheeks. It had been the start to one of the worse days of her and her father’s lives. 

Gabe had been quick to assure her once again that it wasn’t her fault, that he didn’t blame her. He took all the blame as his own for not being truthful with Moira before they got married, and for placing those blocks on her out of his own paranoia and fear. 

It wasn’t difficult to realize that he was afraid what had happened to Richard would happen to her. That she would get too full of herself, and do something foolhardy, something that would get her killed.

She tried her best to calm him down and assure him she wouldn’t be trying anything crazy. She wasn’t sure if she truly convinced him. 

They had ended the conversation there. Both of them too emotionally exhausted to continue any further, though her father promised they would talk some more about things tomorrow after school and work. 

Considering she was still up, unable to sleep, Chloe wasn’t particularly looking forward to that conversation, or really talking to her father at all. She beyond upset with him and wasn’t sure if she could forgive him for what he’d done.

But worst of all, she had the sinking suspicion that there so much more he was holding back, and that those things were more horrible than she could imagine.


End file.
